NAFDAC Seals Niger Rice Factory Over Unhygienic Practices
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control has clamped down on a rice factory in Niger State, Jaff Foods Limited, over its unhygienic processing method.
The NAFDAC also placed on hold dispenser water at a water company, Golden Age Water for not having batching coding and date marking and also confiscated some unregistered herbal teas from Jonapal Supermarket in Minna.
The agency took the action on Thursday during a routine inspection of facilities in Niger State led by the Director, North Central Zone of NAFDAC, Shaba Mohammed.
Mohammed pointed out that although the facility was registered with the agency, the production environment was unhygienic and without good production manufacturing practices.
“The rice processing facility has been sealed and given compliance directives for not complying with the instant regulations for which they were given to produce and certification.
“The place is unhygienic and they are not doing production according to good manufacturing practice,” Mohammed said.
The director added that the agency also discovered that some key personnel employed by the company were not knowledgeable in areas of production and did not know anything about production.
Following this development, NAFDAC organised a one-day workshop for Small and Medium Enterprises to sensitise clients and stakeholders on Automated Product Administration and Monitoring Systems.
According to Mohammed, NAPAMS is an e-registration and data capture system that provides an online electronic medium for the application for product registration with NAFDAC.
He urged MSMEs to take advantage of NAPAMS to ease their interface with the agency and called on the general public to report anything that would endanger the lives of the people to the agency.
“This is a call to the general public to report to us anything they notice that is being consumed that will endanger the lives of the people.
“Also, people should always check the expiry dates of anything or products they are buying before purchasing them, if you suspect an expiry date on a product, report to us in NAFDAC” he added
Niger state NAFDAC coordinator, James Kigbu who declared the workshop open, reiterated that the workshop was to sensitise MSME on the NAPAMS portal introduced by the agency for ease of doing business.
